Sunday Helmerich ’19 excelled academically after entering Pepperdine University in 2008, but finally faced up to the central reality of her college experience.
“I had to admit to myself that I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said.
A talented musician and composer, Helmerich left school and began a career as a musician and songwriter. “I was living in LA and playing in a band Thick as Thieves,” she said. “An actor heard one of my songs at a show and sent it to a writer.”
That was the beginning of a side gig composing music for TV programs and commercials. She’s placed songs on shows including Revenge (ABC), Bones (Fox), The Fosters (ABC Family), and The Real World (MTV). She also did stints as a licensing assistant at DreamWorks Animation and Sony Music Entertainment, learning about the music industry while picking up skills in audio engineering and music administration.
But Helmerich never gave up on college. In the back of her mind she wanted to finish her undergraduate degree in psychology, and then move on to a career in clinical psychology or social work.
She jump-started her college career at the University of Tulsa studying industrial organizational psychology, then finished her BA degree at ̽̽. She graduated in May 2019, and was recently accepted to an organizational psychology master’s program at the Columbia University Teachers College.
“I really enjoyed being back in school—I enjoyed the structure of it,” she said. “I felt lucky that as an older student I could shape my education to what I wanted to learn, rather than just focusing on grades.”
AT ̽̽, Helmerich found an academic home in the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Pinel who studies research on the self, with an emphasis on the importance of feeling understood by others. Pinel’s work was intrinsically interesting, with concepts and techniques that seemed transferrable to many different career paths.
“I wanted to join a research lab with a sense of community,” Helmerich said. “It was a close atmosphere with lots of small group discussions and cool opportunities to talk with different professors and hear them present ideas on new questions they want to study.”
At Columbia she’ll be studying human behavior in organizations and the workplace, and sees herself applying that knowledge as an organizational consultant. She already has some real-world experience to draw on—she’s managed the travel and rehearsal schedule for a six-member band; coordinated relationships between lawyers, publicists, agents and a fan-base; co-directed three music videos and managed sales of music and merchandise.
“I’m excited to have a career that’s a little more stable,” Helmerich said, though she plans on staying in touch with her creative side. “It’s essentially the same—it’s about human relationships and how we learn to work together.”